Emily and Lauren saw Svetlana safely to her room in the Old Dorm Block, then adjourned to the Paradox across the quad. Coffees in hand, they settled on a couch.
Emily said, ‘Lauren, I’d be interested to get your perspective on all the suspects from a psychological point of view. There’s so little reliable direct evidence in this case, I feel like we need to approach it more from the human angle.’
‘Sure. Who are we talking about? Do I know them all?’
‘Most likely not. I doubt you’ve met Saul Goldstein, Svetlana’s father, or Curzon’s ex-husband Douglas. I think they’ve ruled out Douglas anyway. But the one who’s probably the frontrunner at this point is someone you do know – Richard McClintock. And it’s just beginning to occur to me that Sidney Sharpe might be another – though I have neither evidence nor motive in his case, just a gut feeling there’s something very wrong about that young man.’
‘I’d certainly agree with that assessment. I think he may even be a psychopath. I’d have to know more to make a real diagnosis, but the complete lack of any feeling of guilt or responsibility for his actions towards Svetlana is a strong indicator.’
‘Good point. He lies easily, too – isn’t that something psychopaths do?’
‘Absolutely. They lie like breathing. And they have no real regard for anyone but themselves, though they can put up a show of being concerned.’
Emily nodded. ‘That sounds like Sidney. Though I have to say his show is getting less convincing.’
‘And psychopaths don’t hesitate to murder when they have something to gain by it.’
‘Indeed. But I have no idea what Sidney would have to gain by this particular crime. Taylor Curzon wasn’t out to get him, either sexually or academically, as far as I know; he wasn’t even on her radar. At one point I wondered if he might go to some lengths to protect Daniel, but a psychopath wouldn’t do that, would he?’
‘Not likely, no. Only to protect himself.’
Emily sipped her coffee meditatively. ‘What about Richard, then? What’s his profile? Because he definitely had both motive and opportunity.’
‘Really? What was his motive? He wasn’t in love with her, was he?’
‘He lusted after her, certainly. But I don’t think frustrated lust would have been strong enough to make him kill. I probably shouldn’t be too specific at this point, but she had something on him – something quite damaging, potentially career-killing, that he assumed only she knew. He was wrong about that, but that’s beside the point.’
Lauren’s eyes danced with excitement. ‘This is getting better by the minute! Let’s see – Richard … He doesn’t fit the profile for a psychopath, but he is extremely selfish. I’m not aware of anyone he genuinely cares for – are you?’
Emily shook her head. ‘Maybe a pet. But even that would surprise me.’
‘But he’s not a narcissist, either – he doesn’t have that inflated ego, that sense of being invulnerable. So in order to take the risk of killing someone, either he’d have to be very sure of being clever enough not to get caught, or he’d have to see the risk he faced in killing as less than the risk of Taylor revealing what she knew.’
Emily grimaced. ‘Loss of his career versus life imprisonment. I know which risk I’d choose.’
‘Me too, but what else does Richard have besides his career? No family, anyway.’
‘And no outside interests that I know of. Certainly no faith. I guess it’s possible he’d take the risk.’
‘What about the clever planning aspect? He hasn’t been arrested yet – someone else has – so presumably it was done fairly cleverly.’
Emily shook her head. ‘No, that’s the strange thing. It wasn’t clever at all. If Richard did it, Colin and I can’t see how it could even have been premeditated. It seems quite impulsive, and the opportunity to implicate Daniel completely fortuitous.’
‘So we’re looking at an impulse killing? That’s an altogether different animal.’ Lauren drummed her fingers on her coffee cup. ‘Could Richard be driven to kill on the spur of the moment? On the one hand I wouldn’t think he’d have the guts, but on the other hand … What was the method?’
Emily wasn’t sure she was authorized to reveal that detail, but after all, Lauren was certainly not a suspect herself nor likely to talk to any suspects. ‘This is confidential, mind. But she was beaten over the head with a bronze statuette. Quite savagely.’
‘Ooh, that does suggest strong, immediate provocation. Hmm. I think almost anyone could potentially kill that way if sufficiently provoked.’
‘And Taylor Curzon was without doubt the most provoking woman I have ever had the misfortune to meet.’
‘Well, there you go, then. I’d say, if the evidence stacks up, you have yourself a credible suspect.’
Richard McClintock. From nuisance boss and plagiarist to murderer in seconds flat? Was it possible? Emily could not kid herself that it would be fair to take vengeance on her ancient nemesis, the lecherous Professor Jenkins, by helping to convict a man who merely happened to resemble him. But she could not deny it would be satisfying.
From the Paradox, Emily and Lauren went their separate ways. Emily walked toward the library, more out of habit than because she expected to get any more work done that day; her thoughts were too full of the present situation to allow her to immerse herself fully in Dostoevsky’s world. Besides, the clouds had drawn in again, and this time Emily was sure in her aching bones that snow was on the way. If she were going to be trapped, she’d prefer to be trapped at home. The library was on the way, so she could just collect her laptop and head on up the hill.
As she walked, she called Colin. Precisely because she so badly wanted Richard to be guilty, her sense of justice compelled her to share with Colin anything that might point toward someone else as the murderer – even if it was little more than a gut feeling.
‘Colin? Emily. Have you found anything on Richard?’
‘Not yet. He told me he’d sent that particular shirt and jacket to the cleaners. I’m just about to go in there now.’
‘I’ve had a thought about another line you might pursue.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Sidney Sharpe.’
‘Sidney? The student who placed Daniel in Vollum that night?’
‘Yes. His evidence wasn’t confirmed by anyone else, was it?’
‘No. Seems like all the other people in the building were in their offices with their doors closed.’
‘My guess is that the encounter never happened. Sidney may have been there, but I’d bet Daniel didn’t set foot in the building until later, after that student saw him crossing Eliot Circle.’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘It’s not much more than a gut feeling. But this afternoon I surprised Sidney in the process of trying to force himself on Svetlana. Which makes me think he’s not as great a friend to Daniel as he likes to make out.’
‘You don’t think he actually killed Curzon, do you? What motive would he have?’
‘That I don’t know. I have a glimmer, but it needs fleshing out.’
‘OK, I’ll get a swab and see if it matches any of the unidentified DNA we’ve found. And I’ll check out his clothing as well.’
The mention of Sidney’s clothing gave Emily another thought. ‘That student who saw the two men crossing the circle. Did she say why she thought one of them was a professor?’
‘Something about what he was wearing. Just a sec.’ She heard the sound of pages flipping. ‘He had on a knee-length overcoat and no backpack. She thought that would be odd for a student.’
Emily thought back to when she’d seen Sidney outdoors. ‘Sidney wears a knee-length wool overcoat. And he carries a messenger bag rather than a backpack. Plus he’s several inches shorter than Daniel.’
‘Well, I’ll be damned. I never would have thought of that. But if they’re sort of friendly, he might just have found Daniel wandering around disoriented and decided to help him home, right?’
‘Possible, but we went over this with regard to Richard – they were going the wrong direction. Daniel lives in the Old Dorm Block, west of Eliot Hall. Vollum is east.’
‘Shoot, you’re right. OK, I think my priorities have just shifted. Since I’m here I’ll check with the cleaners, but then I’m going to head straight back to talk to Sidney Sharpe.’
The conversation had taken Emily as far as the library entrance. Knowing Colin would soon be returning to campus, she settled in at her station in the library instead of going on home. On an impulse, she pulled her copy of The Brothers Karamazov off the shelf and began to read near the end – Ivan’s conversations with Smerdyakov.
Smerdyakov, Ivan Karamazov’s illegitimate half-brother, had at first idolized Ivan and taken his atheistic ‘everything is permitted’ philosophy much more literally and practically than Ivan had taken it himself. Trying in some way to become Ivan, he had taken it upon himself to commit the dark deeds he was convinced Ivan wanted him to perform – and for which he thus considered Ivan to be wholly responsible.
Immersed in the book, Emily had no concept of how much time had passed when she got a call from Colin. Since the room was apparently empty but for herself, she took the call there.
‘Just got through interviewing Sidney Sharpe. He’s a slippery character, all right. I couldn’t pin him down on anything about his movements that night. Insisted his previous statement was correct, and that after he left the Paradox – where we have witnesses to confirm his presence up till eleven – he went back to his dorm to bed.’
‘What dorm does he live in?’
‘One of the Woodstocks.’ The Woodstock dorms were a group of four largish houses at the far eastern end of campus, beyond the library, which at some point in the college’s distant history had provided faculty housing. ‘They call it the Russian House, whatever that means.’
‘Each of the Woodstock dorms is dedicated to a different language. The students who live there are all studying that language, and supposedly they try to speak it in the house as much as possible. Didn’t really work out that way when I lived there back in the day.’
‘Oh, that explains it. Couple other students were talking gibberish in the common room. Must have been Russian. At any rate, Sharpe made no objection to my searching his room and confiscating the clothes he was wearing the night of the murder. But he wasn’t any too happy about giving me a DNA swab. Claimed an overactive gag reflex and a nasty cold. Only when I suggested doing it down at the station with a doctor present did he finally relent.’
‘That’s suggestive, at any rate.’
‘Yeah. But it isn’t hard evidence. We won’t have that until the lab gets to work and matches his DNA to something at the scene – preferably some of the unknown DNA found on the victim. I’m taking the swab in now, but it’s getting late. Be a while before we have that result.’
Emily glanced out the window and realized the winter day was indeed drawing to a close. She didn’t fancy walking home in the dark, especially since she would have to walk past the Russian House.
‘Let me know when you find out anything. I’m going to head home and give all this a good think.’ She ended the call and gathered her things.
Twilight was closing in as she left the library. The sun, as it dropped from the cloud-whitened sky, drew with it what little warmth the middle of the day had held. Emily shivered, turning the collar of her coat up around her throat and holding it closed with one gloved hand while the other grasped the handle of her briefcase.
As she turned eastward from the library entrance, she caught sight of Sidney walking some way ahead of her, in the direction of his dorm. She thought it odd that he would have left his dorm and be returning to it again in the short time since Colin had left him. Besides, she sensed something furtive in his attitude – he seemed hunched over and kept turning his head to right and left. As he veered off at an angle to pass around the combined physics and biology building, she thought she could see a lumpy shape under his overcoat. What could he be carrying that was too big to fit in his messenger bag?
Sidney paused at the entrance to the educational technology building and looked around more carefully. Emily ducked behind a pillar, wishing she knew more about following people than one could pick up from watching detective shows. After the door closed behind him, she quietly approached and entered the building herself. Sidney was just turning to the left at the end of the hallway. She hurried after him as quietly as the thick soles of her fur-lined boots would allow.
At the end of the second hallway was some sort of opening in the wall. Emily backed behind the turning and peeked around the corner to see Sidney take the bundle out from under his coat and shove it into that opening. Then, with a last furtive glance around him, he scurried toward a secondary exit door at the far end of the hallway.
When he was safely outside, Emily ran to the opening, which was covered by a steel flap engraved with the word ‘Laundry’. Underneath that word was a printed sign that read ‘Bunny suits only!’ Emily put on hold her curiosity as to what place rabbit costumes or Playboy bunny uniforms could have in a college science building and slowly pushed open the flap, praying it would prove to lead only to a bin and not to a chute. She did not feel up to pursuing a chute to its outlet, wherever that might be.
Her prayers were answered. It was a bin, and all it contained was one large white plastic shopping bag with an Eddie Bauer logo on the side, bulging as if it contained something soft. With a stretch that twanged her lower back, she reached in and pulled the bag out.
Sidney’s instinct for secrecy must have been contagious. Although the building was empty, Emily shoved the bag under her own coat and looked about for a private place to examine it. Her eye fell on a women’s restroom down the hall.
Inside the handicapped stall, still wearing her outdoor gloves, she opened the bag and pulled out a large wad of white Tyvek. She shook it out and saw that it was a sort of coverall. Then she remembered having heard somewhere that these suits, worn in clean rooms or at crime scenes, had the nickname of ‘bunny suits’. She supposed they must be used in the computer science department’s hardware lab. But there were no lab classes during Paideia, and presumably the suits were meant to stay in the labs. What would Sidney have been doing with one?
She turned the suit around so the front was facing her and looked at it closely. The chest and arms of the coverall looked slightly smeared with a pinkish tinge. And hiding in the shoulder seam she could see a tiny spot of something that looked like blood.